Birmingham Baby Showers

Two weekends ago we went to Birmingham so that we could be "showered" by our family and friends. I was completely blown away and just reminded of how loved we are and therefore how much our baby will be loved. Everyone's generosity is humbling and we are so thankful. When we left for Birmingham our nursery contained a crib, bedding, changing table and a few clothes hanging in the closet. Now, there's hardly room to walk in there and we have so much organizing to do!

We started the weekend on Friday with a shower at White Plume (where I work). Here are a few pictures...

Matt got to come to this shower

and this is how he enjoyed his time!

How cute is this little outfit. In case you can't read the print, it says

"Does this diaper make my butt look big?"

Karla actually made this beautiful diaper bag!

These are the sweet hostesses (minus Kelly) that made the shower possible!

Thank you so much!

On Saturday, my closest friends hosted a shower for me. It was so great to see family and friends that I just don't get to see very often! Including my sister, who made a special trip all the way from Oregon for the shower! The shower was perfect with great food and fellowship. A time that I will never forget! Here are a few pictures......

Hannah Cate and I with the spread of food

My hostesses and dearest friends

With my Mom and Emily

My Mom got us the diaper bag and I love it!

I loved this little dress from my friend Ivy!

My friend Jen is so talented and she painted this canvas for the nursery. It's now hanging above her crib and is such a special touch to her nursery. When they brought it out to me at the shower, I could hardly hold back the tears.

We truly have just about everything we need......now we just need a baby to try it all out on! We've hit the 2 month count down and she'll be here before we know it.

Lots of catching up to do!

I just realized that I haven't posted since April 8th.....where has this month gone???

We have been busy I do suppose, here are just a few things we did this month.....

• Celebrated our 3 year Anniversary!
• Saw The Baxley's off as they moved back to Birmingham
• I went to Houston for work
• Had a garage sale with The Nebrig's
• Bought a boat
• Helped Matt's Mom and Bill find a house in Orange Beach (they are moving here in July!)
• Put up bead board in the nursery
• Put together the crib
• Gabby got stung by a wasp in the face and had to be rushed to the vet - she is our problem child!
• Hannah Cate had two baby showers in Birmingham
• My sister, Emily, came to town from Oregon for the baby showers and to visit
• We had our 30 week ultrasound and doctor's appointment (she's getting big!)
• We signed our life away at Thomas Hospital and gave our consent to do whatever they need to do to deliver our baby!
• And before the month is over, we still have to drive back to Birmingham to fly to Seattle (mostly work and some play)

Again I say, April has been a busy month, but we sure have had fun! Please forgive my lack of posting. I promise to be better. That's all I have time for now, have to get back to work. The baby showers were amazing and deserve their own post with lots of pictures, so stay tuned. In the mean time, here's the latest of me in all my pregnant glory!

Greetings from Houston

We'll add Houston to the list of cities that Hannah Cate has already visited in her short existence. I've been traveling with my job since I started over five years ago, but this year I've started a slow down trend in the traveling department which has been especially enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, there have been some incredible experiences associated with my traveling job that I will forever be grateful for including a "free" stay at the Waldorf for our one year anniversary with hotel points earned from business travel, the discovery of my favorite US city - San Diego, two trips to Disney World and many weekend extensions from a business trip that Matt and I have been able to enjoy at a highly discounted price. However, as I look forward to this new phase of life, I'm really thankful that I'll be able to continue working but minus all the travel.

I do think I will miss some funny characters I have met along the way. Take for example my seat mate on my flight from Atlanta to Houston yesterday. He decided to strike up a conversation after he saw me searching for the "throw-up" bag in the row in front of me. I tried to be discreet in bringing it back to my seat, so as not to be alarming to my oh-so-close neighbor, but no such luck. I quickly get a nervous "I hope you won't be needing that" comment with a slight grin. And so begins our conversation in which I learn that this man is an OBGYN who lives in Houston and delivers babies on the weekends in Chattanooga. During the week, he is an attorney who represents clients who have medical malpractice suits against their doctor. Interesting. He went to law school at night while he was still practicing medicine and he gets his law clients by advertising in the phone book (he actually told me that, sounds a little shady and I think I would have chosen to leave that part out). He is married and has 7 children, I guess that explains the two jobs but not really the traveling every weekend to Chattanooga. The five youngest children are between the ages of 1 and 6, meaning his poor wife has pretty much been pregnant for 7 years straight. It literally wore me out talking to this man and made me so thankful for my simple little life. What a character he was.....it's things like this that I will miss about my travels. That and the airline miles, hotel points and great dinners. But I'm really going to enjoy being at home with Matt and Hannah Cate on a regular basis and that far outweighs the rest.

A cousin!

My sister is going to have a baby! Hannah Cate and her cousin will be a short four months apart and we couldn't be more excited. I'm already having visions of our family gatherings with two kiddos that will be so close in age and it just makes me smile.

I can't say that I'm all that surprised that it's turned out this way. Emily and I have a track record of having major life events very close together (usually within the same year), even though we are four years apart in age. She graduated from college in December of 2000 and I graduated in December of 2001. She got married in July of 2004 and I got married just a short nine months later in April of 2005 (sorry Mom and Dad!). And now I'll have Hannah Cate in June and she'll have baby Hokanson in November.

Matt and I are so excited to meet our new niece or nephew. Now we just hope they will move a little closer. Oregon really is just way too far away!

Three Years Ago Today

What a great day it was, but that day was just the beginning. Happy Anniversary and thank you for making the other 1,094 days so great! There is no one else that I would rather share my life with and I can't wait for the journey that lies ahead.

Breaking Him In

To say Matt doesn't have much experience in caring for babies/children might be an understatement. Growing up, he was the baby, so he was always the one being cared for and then later in life (like most young men) he just didn't take a special liking to kids.

Fast forward to today. We are three months away from having a sweet little baby of our own!


I have been keeping the babies in the nursery at our church during the 8:30 service and then go back home to get Matt and we go to the late service together. I've done it without him for over a year....until yesterday! I got to thinking on Saturday that I would probably have more babies than normal on Easter, especially during the early service because families would have lunch plans and such to get home for. I managed to convince Matt that I could really use his help in the nursery and would really appreciate if he would be willing to come with me just this once. He agreed on Saturday, and then after some more coaxing on Sunday morning, we were on our way!


At first it looked as though my assumption was terribly wrong, we only had one sweet baby girl for the first few minutes. In typical Matt fashion, he was already trying to get out of staying. My persistence won out, thankfully, because a few late comers showed up and we ended up with five babies, all nine months or younger. I know it doesn't sound like a lot....but please try to imagine me handling all of them by myself, with a baby of my own in my tummy. I definitely needed Matt's help.


In the beginning, he kind of hung out in the back of the room, surveying all that was going on as I took instructions on how to care for each baby from their parents. Then it was just the two of us, and before long three of the five were screaming their heads off! I thought Matt might start crying too. It really was a sight to see. It was mass chaos for a little while, but Matt pulled through like a trooper. He kept an eye on the "happy" babies and made sure they didn't fall over as they pulled up on an exersaucer or didn't get stuck as they crawled under the exersaucer or didn't choke on the cheerios they were eating. I did my best to soothe the "unhappy" babies, as this was the part that seemed to get the best of Matt. I really tried to assure him that when Hannah Cate was here, that she would be much more easily soothed by one of us. I think he was skeptical though!


In the end he did really well and was a huge help. He was really glad to see that last parent come and hand over those babies! I just might have ruined Hannah Cate's chances of ever having a brother or sister, but we still have some time to work on that! By the end of the day, after he had time to process his time in the nursery, I do think he decided this parenting thing was going to be an adventure and one that he's ready for! It's a good thing......

We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our Easter Sunday. I couldn't stop the tears from flowing as we sang Chris Tomlin's version of Amazing Grace during worship.

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace


Blessings to you and may you rest in the hope and peace we have in Christ because He is risen indeed!

Clive and Gabby

Before the blog is completely taken over by all things baby, I wanted to make sure to get in a post about our first "children". I have had a dog my entire life, at least for as long as I can remember. I just love them and I can't imagine not having a dog in my family. So, when Matt graduated from Auburn and started talking about wanting a Lab to be his buddy while he was living in Atlanta, it seemed like a good idea to me. So, I went and found Clive and he has been a part of our lives ever since! I gave him to Matt as an early Christmas present in 2001. I'm not sure that he knew what he was getting into by even mentioning to me that he might want a Lab, but they did quickly become the best of buddies! Clive has turned out to be a great dog....he started out a little rough. But after some training, he's really a great dog that loves to play and that loves us and anyone else that will pay him some attention!

When Matt and Clive made their way back to Birmingham from stints in Atlanta and Dallas, Clive came to live with me because I had the better fenced in yard at the time. In the summer of 2003 we decided it was time that Clive had a friend to keep him company, so we went to find Gabby. She was the cutest puppy, with the sweetest face that I have ever seen.

And without a doubt, she immediately fell in love with her big brother! Matt and I always used to laugh because Clive was obedient to us, but Gabby was obedient to Clive. She just did (and still does) whatever he did. It took him awhile to feel the same way about her as she did about him, but in time he grew to love her too and they are the best of friends!

So that's the story of how we became the owners of two Labs. I love them more than you could probably imagine and the best part is that they love me too! I really cannot imagine our family without them and I know they will quickly become best friends and protectors to Hannah Cate. I fully intend to instill my love for dogs in her, so I know she will love them too!